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Tuesday, February 2, 2016, Magh 20, 1422 BS, Rabius Sani 21, 1437 Hijri


Survey of IRI: Development or democracy?
Siddhartha Shankar Joarder
Published :Tuesday, 2 February, 2016,  Time : 12:00 AM  View Count : 29
Of late, International Republican Institute (IRI), a Washington-based democracy survey research institution, makes a very positive note about Bangladesh by stating that the country is heading to the right direction. This report is prepared over vox populai conducted nationally from October 30 to November 19, 2015 by the Centre for Insights in Survey Research, IRI's public opinion research centre. This poll is conducted to justify people's attitude towards democratic atmosphere and its proper function. As a result, it gives much solace to the pro-government men. Of course, it has many causes to be so because most of the variables show very positive indication on behalf of the government.
Sixty four per cent Bangladeshi believe that in education, transportation and economy it achieves a remarkable success whereas thirty two per cent don't agree with that because they don't accept the political non-functioning. This research finds respondents are increasingly positive about the security situation in the country. Eighty per cent people express their satisfaction over the security issue that is 12-point higher than the previous survey conducted couple of months back.
Importantly, the survey focuses on economic development and the optimism of people about its bright future. It says nearly 80 per cent Bangladeshi are quite satisfied about the economic progress and hope to do well in the coming year. An official of IRI in Asia says economy has been given priority by Bangladeshi people in recent days. Seventy per cent people are found who strongly believe that Bangladesh is passing through a very stable political climate in recent time, but are frustrated over the issue of fighting corruption. At the same time, Transparency International (TI), in a report released on 27 January, says in Corruption Perception Index (CPI), scoring only 27 in a scale of 100 is really frustrating. In terms of previous year, Bangladesh hasn't progressed even a bit rather than retrograding by two points of what it achieved in 2013. This year, Bangladesh stands as 139th among 168 countries.
In south Asia, this performance is really very shabby and can only be compared to Afghanistan - the most dangerous zone of human abode presently. Although other countries of South Asia including India, Sri Lanka or Pakistan, who have come out as 76th, 83rd and 117th respectively, haven't done so well in the ranking, Bangladesh is still far behind. It mustn't be denied that, in spite of some good attempts by the government of Bangladesh, corruption is not subdued satisfactorily. As a matter of fact, it still pulls the government down despite having many successes in different sectors.
Now, the question can be raised: what do we need first for our country, democracy or development, or both? The question is puzzling enough and I believe that no straight-cut answer can satisfy the question properly. Actually nobody can deny that, for every country, democracy and development are reciprocal in need and neither of these two is alternative to each other. So, democracy can ensure development and development progresses through an atmosphere which ascertains equity, righteousness and freedom.
For Bangladesh, the term democracy is confined to a single definition: democracy is thus which is only conducted by caretaker (non-partisan!) government. Surprisingly, our major political parties are in a contention over election instead of democracy. Very interestingly, the term election has been chosen by the political parties as opposed to democracy. BNP and its allies are very much active for long days in politics. This party has the experience of running the government for more than one term; however no remarkable economic revolution had been visible during the tenure; yet it only credited with VAT system to garner up national revenue deposit. In 1991 when this party came to power following the collapse of communism globally, it created huge opportunity to tie with the open market economy. Bangladesh stood at a very crucial point of challenging economy during the time; however it missed out by playing a second fiddle. Awami League was always criticized by her restricted economy in the past because of communist and pro-Indian leaning. But this criticism was successfully come across by shrugging of the so-called restriction. Recently, AL has merged with the global stream by maintaining the wonderful balance between domestic and open economy. As a result, the government reaches at the highest level of secured reservation, ventures to take the mammoth incredible project like Padma Bridge, metro-rail along with other unthinkable economic pace.
For many reasons it can be assumed that people today opt for development rather than an election-an election which licenses the party in power to accumulate wealth, oppress the opponents and develop a sense of anarchy. Most people, as reflected in the survey, do want a peaceful atmosphere and some rights to move freely. This year, I think, is much better than the previous winter which was terrible and suffocating amid dangerous political pitfalls. More than 100 people were killed mercilessly and innumerable lives were damaged partially for an election only, not democracy! At the same time, it claimed many animal lives and smashed the future of many innocents which are envisaged as the most costly political project ever.
Recent survey of IRI does indicate that economic condition is preferable at the time. Indeed, very good sign for our common taste that people take our education into their consideration first as the developing factor. The government's performance in enhancing quality education has been lauded recently because a huge amount of money for elementary education is working behind the improvement. Health sector has also made a significant progress and gender gap has been reducing very sharply due to women empowerment, girl child education, and significant enrolment in both GO-NGO developing sectors.
Lastly, I would like to focus on another global survey WIN/Gallup survey published last week that showed the 'hope index' among the nations. It finds that Bangladeshis are the most optimistic people in the world where eighty four per cent people dream that 2016 would be better than previous year in terms of economic development. Let's work for the dream to come true.
Siddhartha Shankar Joarder is Chairperson, Department of Philosophy at Jagannath University









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